Representative Maria Elvira-Salazar (R-FL) recently warned Honduran officials against manipulating results in the country’s upcoming presidential elections.
Honduras is governed by the progressive ‘Libertad y Refundación’ Party (LIBRE), led by President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya.
While Honduras’s presidential elections are scheduled for November 2025, candidates challenging LIBRE complained of questionable election counts in the primaries last March.
As elections near, conservative Nasry Asfura is leading the latest polls and could remove LIBRE and President Zelaya from power in November.
However, Representative Salazar and critics are skeptical LIBRE and Zelaya will relinquish power.
“The future of Honduras must be decided by Hondurans, not sabotaged by the authoritarian ambition of the Zelaya family,” warned Salazar.
Consequently, Salazar promised to introduce a bill that would automatically sanction anyone found to interfere with Honduras’s elections.
“Free and fair elections are the foundation of every democracy,” continued Salazar. “When that foundation is attacked, the entire region pays the price.”
Zelaya’s presidency has been controversial, especially due to reports her family previously cooperated with Honduran drug traffickers to secure campaign funds.
The reports followed Zelaya’s unilateral termination of Honduras’ extradition treaty with the US, a decision she reversed shortly after President Donald Trump’s election.
Zelaya terminated the extradition treaty after US Ambassador to Honduras Laura Dogu criticized Zelaya’s administration for collaborating with individuals wanted for drug trafficking in the US.
Salazar condemned Castro’s actions, defining them as “socialist corruption” designed to protect Zelaya’s family from being extradited to the US.
Since then, Zelaya has sought to cultivate friendly relations with the US and pledged to support President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem recently visited Zelaya and personally thanked Honduras for being “a vital partner” in immigration enforcement initiatives.
Secretary Noem underscored Honduras’ assistance with ‘Project Homecoming,’ a newly established voluntary deportation program.
